“Well, more power to them,” Maggie said. “I don’t know why they love their whales so much, but I know they do.”
And had since well before the birth of their surprise baby. Kelsey sometimes searched herself for any weird childhood holdovers given the young age at which she’d understood the disruptive nature of her own existence, but her attempt at self-excavation hadn’t unearthed much. They loved her well and had prioritized her for the first decade of her life. Then they had announced their intention to follow migratory humpback whales around the world again, the way they used to, and Kelsey had asked for one more summer in Harmony Ridge with her friends. “One more summer” somehow became a more-or-less permanent arrangement, reevaluated every six months.“Want to join us? The world is an amazing place. Whales are amazing creatures. We miss you.”Until the year she turned fifteen. Then the reevaluation became a check-in, and Kelsey’s heart rested the moment she realized the different nature of their questions.“How’s Maggie doing? Are you still dating that boy Trevor? Do you think you’ll always live in Tennessee?”
She loved them. They were her parents. They were perfect together, both of them as in love with the whale pods as with each other, both of them living foremost by their heads. She had seen this early too, that she lived foremost by her heart instead, that Trevor did the same, and that this was why they belonged together as surely as her parents did.
“Kelsey,” Maggie said.
“Did you ever regret it? I mean, even for a minute or two. I know not for long, but…you said yes to one summer with no idea you were saying yes to seven years.”
“What’s my answer to that question?” Maggie said. “Every time you ask, what’s my answer?”
“Well, I haven’t asked since…” Since well before she moved away, but the moving-away subject was getting to her, the way it kept popping up.
“My answer won’t change, Kels.”
It was true. It was one of the things that made Maggie her second-favorite person.
This wasn’t the type of conversation for a phone call. Late in the day, Ezra would be home working at one of his hobbies in his basement workshop, and he didn’t deserve a heads-up about company. Not after the crap he’d pulled yesterday.
Trevor parked in his brother’s driveway and marched down the slope, around the house, to the walkout patio’s sliding glass door. He rapped so hard his knuckles smarted. In a minute, Ezra came into view and opened the door.
“Bro,” he said.
Trevor gestured for Ezra to join him outside. Then he turned his back, widened his stance, and stared out on the pond at the bottom of the gentle hill. Beyond Ezra’s yard the trees wore their best autumn colors. Waning sunshine brightened the splendid bursts of orange, red, and gold.
“Went to Maggie’s this morning,” he said.
Discomfort filtered into Ezra’s scent. “Oh.”
“Yeah.” Trevor locked his jaw a moment, breathed deep. “You’ll never guess who’s staying with her after surgery.”
“Trevor…”
“Well, what? If you’ve got something to say for yourself, go ahead.”
Ezra approached slowly to stand at Trevor’s side. “It wasn’t my finest moment in terms of strategy.”
“Strategy? Try courtesy, Ez. I know you refused to talk to her. Kelsey downplayed it, but I’m not going to.”
While he spoke a scent wafted from behind him—white pepper, an essence he’d known since his first days as a wolf. He turned to face his sister.
“Well, I say good for Ezra,” Sydney said from the basement walkout doorway.
“What?” Trevor’s heart began to hammer, adrenaline rising.
“Maybe she’ll get her feelings hurt and slink off home to Raleigh.”
“Raleigh?”
“She told Aaron all about her great condo and her great life. For the last nine years, she’s been a day’s drive from us. Chew on that for a minute.”
A day’s drive. Not overseas, not one of the American coasts, despite dozens of video-blogs from all these places. The one region of the U.S. Kelsey had never written about was the mid-South. It had to be the one region she’d abandoned for good, or so Trevor had reasoned. But no, he could’ve gotten into his truck and journeyed to her door, begged entrance, begged a second chance.
He couldn’t breathe.
“Honestly though, I couldn’t care less if she was living in Singapore or Sweden or down the street.”
“Stop it, Syd,” he said as his insides began to boil.
